Yevgeny Prigozhin apparently being killed on the same day that it emerged Gen Sergei Surovikin had been relieved of his command of Russia’s air force means the two most effective leaders in the first phase of the Ukraine war are now gone; their removal a victory of sorts for the old guard at the Kremlin.
The Wagner group, headed by Prigozhin, led the capture of Bakhmut, Russia’s only battlefield gain so far this year, and it was his ally Surovikin, in his short period of overall command in Ukraine, who began building the defensive fortifications that are seen as so important to the invader’s position today.
